Canada based NB Power (New Brunswick Power Corporation) has selected Prysmian Submarine cable for its project to connect the Fundy island with a new power cable. As per the contract, Prysmian will supply submarine cables from its manufacturing locations in Europe for the Fundy Isles Project. The order worth €17 million has been placed to the cable maker by NB Power.
NB Power, the largest electric utility in Atlantic Canada based in the province of New Brunswick is advancing as per its original plans and schedules with the Fundy Isles Project that involves the development of a new submarine cable link. The new power cable link will allow the upgrade of the capacity of the existing submarine transmission system in the Passamaquoddy Region of the Bay of Fundy.
1st Cable: From Chocolate Cove, on the east side of Deer Island, to Wilson’s Beach, on the west side of Campobello Island.
Total length – approx. for 3.5 km –
2nd Cable: From Little Whale Cove, on the east side of Campobello Island to Long Eddy Point, on the north side of Grand Manan Island
Total length – approx. 16.5 km
NB Power has received the approval from the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government to install new submarine cables between Deer Island, Campobello and Grand Manan and keep providing the Fundy Isles with safe and reliable power.
The region is depending on the existing power cables built in 1978 for electricity. These cables have reached their expected lifetime of 40 years. The new cables will be placed adjacent to the existing cables in accordance with feedback obtained during the public consultation period with various stakeholders and First Nations.
The terrestrial work for the new cable system was started in the second half of 2018, which is progressing and is expected to complete in the spring and summer of 2019. It is expected that Prysmian’s submarine cables will be delivered and installed during July and August of 2019. The remaining work of the overhead transmission line will be completed in the fall of 2019.
Prysmian will design, manufacture and installation of a 300 mm² 69 kV three-core submarine cable. The cables will be produced at the Montereau factory in, France, which would be taken to Nordenham (Germany) for doing the armoring process. The cable outer sheath material would be Cross-linked Polyethylene. The cable length would be 20 km., part of the Group after the merger with General Cable. Completion of the project is scheduled for October 2019.
Fiber optic connectivity to the Island
NBTel (New Brunswick Telephone Company) provides fiber optic services in the island. The company was founded in 1888. NBTel was based in Saint John, New Brunswick, until its merger with the other Stentor Alliance companies in Atlantic Canada to form Aliant in 1999.
On September 22, 2017, The Quoddy Tides reported that NB Power had originally planned fiber optic cables along with the power cables. excerpts from the post here;
“According to NB Power Project Manager Wendi Wright, the existing cable is currently operating “at about half capacity” but after 40 years is nearing its design lifetime. Wright, who spoke with Campobello residents at an open house at the community center on September 13, stressed that the existing cable is not showing any signs of failure but that it is time to install the replacement. Six representatives were present, including both engineers and environmental experts.
Diagrams provided by NB Power show that the cable, which includes three large conductors to provide three‑phase power to the islands, also includes three bundles of fiber optic cables. “We don’t really need these,” said one of the representatives, “but since it costs very little to put them in it would be shortsighted not to.”
The cable, according to one engineer, costs “about three to four hundred dollars per meter,” but the addition of the fiber lines only adds “about two dollars per meter” and nothing to the burial costs. He cited one case where a utility had not until prompted, thought to include these lines but now leases them to an Internet provider, helping defray costs of the cable. According to representatives, NB Power will make the fiber optic cables available but restrict its own use to system communications needs”.
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